A Toaster on Wheels to Deliver Groceries? Self-Driving Tech Tests Practical Uses

Wondering what safeguards are in place to prevent social media fanatics or drunk people from trying to squeeze inside for a ride after the door has been opened for a delivery.

Good heavens! Anesthesia, running water and sewage disposal, electricIty, natural gas, central heating and air conditioning, radio, television, the Internet, IPod, Smartphone, and aircraft that take off and land by themselves! And now a self driving Vehicle? How could this possibly be true? It will all happen and more. The problem is feeding and educating our species! Not preventing technological progress.

I suspect that autonomous delivery of groceries is the easy part. If they could automate the selection of the goods, packaging and placement in the vehicle as well, it would be a winner.

Forever “just 3-4 years away...” Where’s that flying car I’ve been promised!?

This is exactly the kind of vehicle I want. A tiny electric toaster that I can pile a few grocery bags in and commute all over town. I currently have an electric bicycle and used it extensively for 8 months out of the year. But when it gets cold or wet, I use the car. I have found that my ebike gets gets me where I want to go in only a few minutes longer. No problem. My bike has a range of at least 20 miles and often use it all. If the toaster had a range of 50 miles, I would have ample range. So instead of getting some 300 mile range car that seats five and goes 90 MPH, I hope this type of vehicle will become available that seats two and a few groceries with a cruising speed of 35.

People were equally curious about the transition from horses to cars. Here's an interesting story from the NYT 16 December 1900 pg 16. "Members of the Automobile Club of America are seriously talking of running a public coach in Spring from one of the fashionable hotels in town to one of the country club, probably the Ardsley. If the scheme matures it is to be carried out on the same plan as that employed by gentlemen who indulge in four-in-hand public coaching [horse coach], and the projectors of the scheme expect to get fully as much fun out of it. … Manipulators of the machines are sure that the days of coaching are numbered, in this city at least… They think they will be able to provide a substitute that will be taking with the public. To the laymen, aside from the fact that it will be more expensive and a bit more exclusive, there does not seem to be much in favor of an automobile trip as against the ordinary journey on a trolley road car. "

If they put one of those Boston dynamics walking robots inside, it could carry the groceries drone the car to your doorstep, or carry a machine gun into a battle, let’s say like a war with those pesky humans!

This is so exciting! Things will be so great when humans just stay in bed all day and night with their phones/apps!

Aside from the reduction in human labor, one lesson here is that a two ton truck isn’t always needed to move a couple of bags of groceries half a mile. The rest of the world has been pretty good at sizing transport to the job, witness the vast numbers of tiny utility vehicles (human driven) that are in use, except in the US where they are generally outlawed by our regulations. So we have gotten to the point where a delivery bicycle or a tourist horse carriage are legal, but a micro-truck isn’t. The test cases are developing, however, as electric carts and cycles proliferate and provoke examination of the rules. The ‘to the door’ issues, which are substantial, may be solved, but just not quite yet. Who knows, we may see electric trolleys once more; back to 1895!

Imagine the "apps' that will be developed to divert these cars to phoney locations so the groceries can be stolen.

Ironically, 'Toaster' is the vulgar epithet that human characters in the "Battlestar Galactica" and "Caprica" TV shows used against the smart robots they had created (and eventually had cataclysmic war with, when the robots gained sentience and rebelled).

Who does the shopping? Some shopping can be done online, but I wouldn't want to buy produce, flowers, fresh fish, etc. this way.

Wait till these earnest innovators discover what abuse people can inflict on technology that can't fight back. Ever see someone tease a dog? These things aren't even as smart as a canine. I predict tragic hilarity.

This is a good concept and I think that it will work at some point. I am sure it is much more efficient for all involved that low wage delivery drivers today. The problem with self-driving cars whether full size or mini ones like this is that there are still human drivers who don't act like robots. People who do not follow traffic laws (whether on foot, bicycle, or behind the wheel) are the greatest impediment to the full scale use of autonomous technology. When we can figure out how to get people to comply with traffic laws and safety concerns autonomous vehicles will be king.

Can the autonomous vehicle's computer make the subjective decision just prior to a collision of avoiding the semi-collapsed human being on their hands and knees, or the German Shepherd standing next to them, on the road? Or in a head on collision between an autonomous vehicle and an occupied vehicle, does the autonomous vehicle simply stop, or does it swerve off to the correct side to avoid or mitigate the collision? Do autonomous vehicles have the ability to subjectively mitigate out of any dangerous situation on the road?